


warm days, a reprieve

by RedTailedHawks



Series: a study in love and the things we do for it [4]
Category: Far Cry 5
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-13
Updated: 2020-04-13
Packaged: 2021-03-01 21:28:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,158
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23633866
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RedTailedHawks/pseuds/RedTailedHawks
Summary: Sam, not for the first time, wondered what it would take for Eli to turn her away.
Relationships: Female Deputy | Judge/Eli Palmer
Series: a study in love and the things we do for it [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1454839
Comments: 1
Kudos: 8





	warm days, a reprieve

**Author's Note:**

> We really do be out here forgetting to post things for months 😔

It’s a warm day. The heat felt like molasses and Sam wanted to do shit all. But the younger members of the Whitetail Militia wanted to go out by the lake. And most of them, late teens-early twenties, had the impulse control of a starving gnat. Which is to say, none at all. How Sam, who threw flares at wild animals and lit private property on fire because the owners annoyed her, ended up on the chaperone group was beyond her. She chalked it up to Eli, who was sitting under the shade of a tree near the bank. His quiver and bow to his side. His head tilted up in the direction of the sun with his eyes closed. No jacket and his pants rolled up with his boots at his side. 

Sam knew he was playing the long con. Waiting for her to go to him. But she was quite content laying where she was, her terracotta skin deepening in color under the rays of the sun. She’d pulled off her tactical pants to reveal a pair of athletic lycra shorts that reached a third of the way down her thighs and a metric shit ton more scars. 

Once Sam was satisfied with her time in the sun and before she started worrying about heat stroke she dragged herself and her belongings over to the shade provided by a tree nowhere near Eli. Who she knew was watching with an incredulous look. Once she settled Sam smiled and waved at him. Then Sam tilted her head back and closed her eyes. She held a knife loosely in her hand and left her hand gun out and ready on top of her pile. 

Soon enough she heard the sound of Eli caving and plopping down next to her. She opened one eye to glance at him. His face betrayed no emotion but she knew him well enough at this point to discern the slight tilt of his eyebrows that snitched on him and let Sam know he was annoyed. At her or himself was something she would have to ask and she’s quite comfortable in the mystery. 

“Wheaty keeps looking over here,” Eli hummed. 

“He has a gigantic crush on you, can’t blame him. There’s just something about Greasy Mountain Man that has a charm,” Sam teased. 

“Anyone ever tell you to consider a change in career?” Eli gruffed, “comedian seems to fit.” 

Sam grinned, finally opening her eyes and let her head lull to the side to look at him. 

“I’m not kidding about the crush,” Sam informed him, “kid couldn’t be more obvious. He admires you a lot.” 

“Here I was thinking he had a crush on you,” Eli admitted. 

“Nah, that’s just curiosity. He has a lot of questions he wants to ask but doesn’t think he should.” Sam said. She watched as Wheaty animatedly spoke with one of the other kids, casually reaching over and grabbing the boy’s arm in excitement. Then turning to yell at one of the girls to get her attention. 

“I think it’s more than that,” Eli suggested. 

“Well, whatever it is, it’s cute.” Sam said. 

They stayed quiet for a while. Watching on like a pair of tired parents. Knowing that the idea of stacking three people on top of each other for a game of extreme chicken was a bad idea from the get go, yet not invested enough to try and reason with them. 

“I remember being their age, doing all that dumb fucking shit,” Eli sighed. 

“I didn’t really get that luxury. I joined the military pretty early on,” Sam hummed. 

“So did I, most of the teenager shit I did afterward in my twenties. My friends and I used to take an old van nobody wanted and couldn’t get sold and run it into shit. We got it stuck in a river once. Another time my friend Jarrod got one of those inflatable pools and filled it up. One of us pulled the short stick and drove while the rest of us tried not to drown in the back.” 

Sam snorted. “Somehow I can’t imagine an Eli that doesn’t look like he’s lived in a cave for a decade. But sounds like you had a fun time. I had a few friends but they were all scattered to the wind. Between tours I mostly lived in the zzt driving around the southern states doing odd jobs here and there.” 

“Well you must have done something stupid,” Eli said and then conceded, “apart from living in a zzt.” 

Sam winced as the first tower of kids dramatically flailed and the loud sound of bodies hitting water reached them. 

“Kane and I used to be a special kind of stupid,” Sam admitted. “We filled the exercise pool at base with plastic balls. When they found out it was us we got reemed. The punishment was surreal. But the look on our direct superior’s face when he was trying to be disappointed and not laugh his ass off, was worth it.” 

“This Kane guy, you mention him a lot.”

“We used to be close. He introduced me to my first girlfriend.” Sam watched his reaction closely. A look in his eyes that was almost disappointed. She wonder which it was. If he thought he had no chance or the fact that she might be a lesbian being just a step too far. All the murder was fine but kissing women in her free time? “She passed away during my last year of duty.”

“Im sorry,” Eli said gently. Always gentle. She almost felt like an idiot for trying to ascribe a negative emotion to him. If she didn’t know he was capable of that and more, she probably would have felt horrible. If she hadn’t witnessed what he could do with that bow, the anger and righteous vengeance in his eyes with every person, every peggie, he shot down. Sam, not for the first time, wondered what it would take for Eli to turn her away. What would he do if he knew that deep down— somewhere in the recesses of her past— lay a part of her that believed in what Joseph preached? Or would he hold Sam in his arms and tell her that it was her actions that counted in the long run?

“It was a long time ago,” Sam said, “I’m quite comfortable knowing I’ve moved on.”

“Is that so?” 

“Mhm,” Sam hummed. Watched the kids give up on extreme chicken and instead just seeing who can throw the farthest rock. “There’s this guy, I think he’s pretty great.”

Eli stiffened. “Is that so?” 

“Mhm.” Sam never elaborated. Choosing instead to lean against him. Melding into his side like that was exactly where she belonged. For a while she could let herself believe it was true as he tentatively slid his hand across her back, settling against her hip and pulling her closer. 


End file.
